bullying has been in the headlines lately and october is national bully prevention month. the gang from sesame street is helping kids deal with this important issue. we're going to talk with big bird and a new guy in the neighborhood about what they are doing in a special episode to look at bullying. >> that's blue jay, the new guy. it's a big issue. >> yeah. tucker barnes has been keeping track, as i have been as well, of the rain moving through the area and he joining us now with the latest. >> i've been watching it too, tuck. >> thanks, allison. it continues out there in places, not the entire area. much of the area getting light drizzle. still some fog out there. shower activity to the north, towards columbia, into much of howard county and northeastern portions of montgomery county. now we're watching bands redevelop here south and east of the city, down into southern prince george's county and

another band underneath our fox 5 logo towards manassas and dale city. this afternoon should be mostly cloudy, as we'll be between two systems later today. lots of showers, most of the shower activity from yesterday off to the north and east towards boston. to the west, a cold front that will arrive later. a little break. still a lot of clouds around, and relatively cool, with temperatures only in the 60s at this point. 65 at reagan national. 97% humidity. winds out of the north and east at 5 miles per hour. forecast today, plenty of clouds, drizzle continues. high temperatures about 70 or so in washington. and gradual improvement as we get into the weekend. details on that coming up in just a couple of minutes. allison, back to you. now to today's top story, an amber alert in effect for an 11-year-old boy after a disturbing discovery in montgomery county. >> police say the boy's mother was found dead inside her germantown home.

fox5's stacey cohan has been following this story. she joins us with the latest details. >> reporter: good morning. i've been learning a little bit more about this family, talking to a few people that knew her. she apparently worked at a nearby accounting firm as a receptionist. she had this boy for some time, been through tough times. according to one person that knew her, seemed to be on the right path. her young son appeared to be attending martin luther king junior middle school. we have a few pictures to show you. first of this missing 11-year- old boy, william mcquain. he has been missing, last seen here some time late september, a couple of weeks ago. he is gone along with the victim's car, and it's imperative they find where they are. jane mcquain is the victim. she had been living here in the german town apartments, apparently a friend of hers couldn't reach her and contacted police yesterday. it's when detectives were sent here last night, and they gained access to her apartment

through a window. here's what police had to say. >> according to information that we have now, he was last seen about september 30th. we're hoping to advance that in the daylight hours today, contact more sources, family members, friends, to try to confirm that time line. >> reporter: it's been a frightening event for folks in this neighborhood and there is an amber alert out for the young man and for the car. 11-year-old william mcquain is 5 feet tall, about 80 to 85 pounds. the car missing, that they believe this boy may be with this car is a black 2011 honda crv with maryland license plate 5 ag 9405. montgomery county police are very anxious to find out what happened to this car and to this young man and who is responsible for the death of jane mcquain. reporting live, i'm stacey cohan. back to you. >> if i can ask a quick

question, because it's been interesting what the police have not said this morning, there is a woman dead, apparent homicide. looking for the boy and car, do they have thoughts, looking for a particular person, a suspect? do they have any idea who might have that car? >> reporter: well, we've asked that specifically, repeatedly i have asked them since you seem to believe the boy is with this car, does that lead me to believe there is a suspect in mind? they say it is simply too early to reveal that. but they believe that the car and this boy are connected. it does not appear, at least from anybody i've spoken with, that she has -- we don't know what happened to the father of this boy or the relationship with him. usually that is the first place they look. police have been reluctant to give out any information on who they are looking for. tony? >> interesting. thank you very much. new this morning, fire forces several families from their homes. two dozen residents will need a new place to stay after the

flames broke out overnight at an apartment complex along cherry hill road in beltsville. heavy damage to the interior of that building. no injuries reported and no word on what caused the fire. an earthquake in the pacific overnight, the powerful quake was updated to a 6.1 and rattled bali in indonesia. it sent people running from hotels and homes in panic. about 50 people are hurt, but no tsunami warning and no deaths reported. another aftershock into the virginia quake back in august. it hit the epicenter of the quake that rattled the east coast in august. a 3.0 magnitude after shock occurred yesterday afternoon about 6 miles southwest of mineral, virginia. a local middle school was evacuated briefly. allison, a major step in the effort to repair the

national cathedral. a 2-ton pinnacle damaged during the earthquake in august is being removed this morning. fox5's sarah simmons is live on the scene. >> reporter: tony, a spokesperson for the cathedral has said despite the weather, there are no plans to cancel the work expected to be done today. however, there may be delays due to weather or fog. there's a little bit of drizzle coming down, and definitely a lot of fog. we'll take a look up here at the central tower, where they've been doing work. you can see how foggy it is. i'm not sure if you can tell, i can see from my point, a couple of workers that are up there at this time, possibly three workers. it's a little tough to see, obviously. possibly preparing to do the work today. here's what they are expected to do, it's to remove portions of a pinnacle that was damaged during that 5.8 quake back in august. just expected to temporarily remove these today. as you mentioned, they are 2- ton pieces, taken from the

southwest corner of the central tower. what they are trying to do is stabilize this pinnacle and the central tower until there can be stone work repaired that they are going to have to be working on. obviously, a lot that is going to need to be done.at this point the cathedral is scheduled to reopen on november 12th. they're really hoping to get this work done today. this of course is the same crew that was working as you may remember on the washington monument, inspecting it for cracks after the earthquake. so they did the work there. they have moved up to here. but again, they're hoping to get this done today, because apparently this crew in high demand, is on a very tight schedule, so even though it's raining, a little bit foggy, they'll take their chances today and may be delays, but they're hoping to get this work done as soon as possible. that's the latest here, back to you. thanks. ever since protesters in syria

rose up, syrian protestors and other nations have claimed government agents spied on them. an alleged syrian spy has been arrested in virginia. he is charged with sending video recordings of american protestors to syria. the feds say he met with the syrian president this summer. britain is warning syria about intimidation of protestors in london. a surprise in court from the man known as the underwear bomber. umar farouk abdulmutallab unexpectedly pleaded guilty to trying to blow up an international flight on christmas day 2009. his trial started in detroit tuesday, and yesterday he pleaded guilty to all eight charges against him. he faces a sentence of up to life in prison for trying blow up a northwest airlines flight from the netherlands to detroit. the obama administration is asking other world leaders for support in dealing with iran after that spoiled d.c. terror

plot. the justice department says elements of the iranian government were behind the plan to kill the saudi ambassador to the u.s. one person has been arrested for the plan, which would have been carried out at a restaurant here in the district. u.s. officials say actions against iran could involve sanctions, but nothing has been taken off the table. >> it's a very dangerous thing that they believed they can do this on u.s. soil, kill a saudi ambassador, take american civilians as casualties as well in washington, d.c. is a brazen act. zatarain an government maintains it was not involved in the terror plot. president obama and the first lady welcoming the president of south korea to the white house, as we take a live look now. the president will hold a president with president obama in a couple of hours and the

first lady will take the south koreaen first lady to a high school this morning. they have a state dinner tonight. the president of south korea is scheduled to address a joint session of congress. lawmakers last night passed a free trade agreement with south korea. we have a programming note for you. we want to let you know about our coverage plans for the martin luther king memorial dedication. we will broadcast the official ceremony at 11:00 a.m. sunday on our sister station, wdca, that's my 20. ceremony will include remarks by president obama and a performance by aretha franklin. it's the martin luther king, jr. memorial dedication ceremony this sunday, 11:00 a.m. on my 20. we'll also stream the coverage on myfoxdc.com. i know you will be a part of that. >> i will be. looking forward to it. you asked, and dr. oz will answer. coming up, dr. oz joins us

again, this time to answer some of the questions you submitted via facebook. he's got company, too. >> sure does. glad to have them here. we'll talk about what's coming up on his next episode, and the health news of the day. stay with us. it's 9:10.      state farm. this is jessica. hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? oh, jerry, i'm so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month. yeah, you know it's funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it's taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica! jerry, are you crying?

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millions across america make an appointment each day with dr. oz. you see him each day here at fox 5. we talked to him earlier about his challenge to get the country fit and healthy. he's here to answer your questions. >> we have over a quarter billion people signed up. i love the fact you can show up, and most importantly they spread the word. >> exciting. it's not easy. >> no. >> i know about it. trust me, i know.

dr.oz, you were kind enough to answer some of our facebook questions. i was asking you offcamera, too, what do whole grains do for the body? i want to know how do i eat not all white foods. she wants to know what does whole grains do for the body. >> when you have whole grain breads instead of white, you could a lot of fiber. you know this, we've been talking about this, you stay full longer and you become regular and drops cholesterol level. >> no white breads. what kind of breads? >> 100% whole grain. or eat less of the white bread. for white pasta, you can have whole grain pasta that you can get. white sugar is a big issue for me. i'm okay with sugar. i'm not okay with added sugar. fruit has sugar in it

naturally. it comes with fiber. the fiber holds the sugar into your intestines and doesn't rush it to your bloodstream. >> chris asks what can a man do nationally to increase -- naturally to increase chances of conceiving a baby? >> tomorrow's show is a national sex survey. to have a baby, you have to have sex. women in the survey voted the most important aphrodisiac as helping around the house. number one. in terms of mechanical functions, saturated fats, and smoking. you want food with zinc in them, nuts are probably the single best fertility foods. nuts are the germation source for plants and give you the nutrients. for men with problems, nuts. >> almonds, anything in

particular. >> cashews, hazel nuts. walnuts are particularly good. >> a lot of baby questions, this one, what is the best way to deal with morning sickness? >> 4 million women get pregnant every year, that's quite a bit. keeping your stomach full with things that are bland. eating before you go to bed is smart. bread, pasta, rice, without too much taste. no potent smells. i would tell my wife to have a napkin, we have four kids, and put a little bit of lemon in there or essential oil and have that be the dominant smell so it doesn't bother you. >> didn't i hear lavender? >> not just for morning sickness, but sleep it's effective. we don't think about smell, but smell bypasses the cortex of the brain. i grew up in this area, and honeysuckle in the spring,

reminds me of being a kid. >> this is after the babies, what is good to take for going through menopause? i can't stand the hot flashes and belly fat. >> this is a big issue. first off, saturated fats are a big issue. inflammatory fats. you can get rid of the body fat as well. you don't have so much extra estrogen being made by the fat cells. i want women to think about hormones. we're doing a show today. 3:00today, that will talk about hgh hormones. i don't think women should take human growth hormones. i believe buy o dent cal hormones is good. it's not just the estrogen. ten years before menopause, estrogen drops, and it's valuable to the female body.

when you have the right amount in your body, you tolerate stuff. when they drop, small things get to you. it's part of what premenopause is about. when you can't deal with the issues in your life, they're augmented when hormones go crazy through menopause. >> the sex survey, that's coming up on the show? >> tomorrow, yeah. >> tell us about it more. >> huge survey over the summer, thousands responded. we wanted to know were you happy with your life? i think the lack of intimacy in america. you're not revving the engines, is a major issue. 90% said they were not happy with the level of intimacy in their lives. a lot of women, and i'm going to be clear with this, a lot of women feel the male should initiate. doesn't have to be the case. >> coming from the one man in here. >> a tip, if a guy touches his nose, it means he's ready. >> really? >> the mucous membranes of the nose are similar to other parts of the body.

when the body is having blood surge through the nose, probably surging elsewhere. >> interesting. who knew? this is the local transformation nation in here with us today. >> can i make a big announcement? >> please do. >> we are launching the competition in d.c. today. this wonderful station here is bringing its own independent competition. you can be part of it at home, sign up at droz.com. the winners will join me in may the finale show. we're going to all vote on the winner. the best person to represent america in health this year. all of you get to compete. one person from this group will come visit the show, back stage with me and participate. one person will win a million dollars. [cheers and applause] >> thank you guys. good luck to each of you. it has been such a pleasure to talk to you. >> always a pleasure. >> i can see why america loves you so much. back to you, tony.

>> thank you. great stuff. thanks dr. oz for being here, too. a state wide sick out in alabama is underway. we'll tell you about a law that has sparked many to protest this morning. plus, holly is getting ready for fall with fall decorating. holly is this. >> reporter: absolutely. good morning to you, tony. fall is the time to fertilize. it's the time to trim your topiaries and i am learning all that because i am spending the morning with none other than derek thomas, our gardening guru. we are live at plant world in brandywine. coming up, we are going to learn everything we need to know to make sure our house looks awesome this autumn. it's all live later. ♪ i've been high ♪ holly, thank you. here's a look at today's trivia question. what color is the golden gate bridge? is it international orange, rusty red, antique red, or marquis orange? the answer is coming up in just a little bit.

keep it here. there's much more ahead this morning. this is train. ♪  

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neighbors familiar with the suspect say a bitter custody battle over a young boy may have led to a shooting rampage in california. police say he opened fire at the hair salon in the quiet community of seal beach. eight people were killed and another person wounded. according to neighbors his ex- wife worked at the salon. one customer was shocked to hear the news, and more surprising to hear the gunman lives in her neighborhood. >> i knew she was in a custody, you know, an ugly divorce or custody battle, whatever you want to call it, but i didn't know really devastating that to come home and see this, that, you know, it's your neighbor.

>> neighbors say scott evans de cry and his current wife scouted out the neighborhood as a nice place to live with his son. there has been a major shift in the michael jackson death trial. defense attorneys dropped their claim that michael jackson gave himself the lethal dose of propofol. it seemed to come as a big surprise to the prosecution and the judge. a state wide sick out in alabama is underway to protest the state's immigration law that allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally. it also requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. many businesses dependent on immigrant workers closed in solidarity over the bill. officials say the law was

enacted to prevent undocumented workers from taking jobs away from americans. coming up, october is national bully prevention month. sesame street is doing its part to make a difference. big bird and a new character named blue jay will join us next to talk about their special show dealing with bullying. social media exposing a bad tipper. we'll show you what one man left behind for his bartender. it was a tip, but not the monetary kind. we'll show that you to you. it's 9:27. 3q get irresistibly clean and fresh carpets in your home

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safe. reliable. efficient. affordable. it's the engine that hauls our economy. driver: coming soon to an appliance store near you... with the help of freight rail! ♪ in the current day of social media, you might want to be careful for what you leave behind, for example, a tip. >> one patron of a restaurant in seattle decided to leave an advice tip. he left this for the bartender friday. a big goose egg on the tip line, and a handwritten note along the bottom saying, you

could stand to lose a few pounds. that is not cool. the bartender posted a photo of the receipt including the guy's name on her facebook page. imagine the e-mails he's getting. not cool. >> what a jerk. >> wonder what happened before that. maybe they got into an altercation. >> when is, you could stand to lose a few pounds ever justified? >> i'm not touching that one. >> never. nasty. >> you bring up a good point. if they had words and he's trying to get the last word. >> right. >> it's still uncool. >> the thing is if that person said something first to the customer. the only thing the bartender could have said, looks like you don't need any more finger food or mozzarella sticks. and he wrote back, you could stand to lose a few pounds. >> that's what we're saying. >> do you think a bartender

would insult him that way? he could just be a jerk. there are some people like that in the world. we don't know many, but there are jerks. >> that's right. >> right? >> that's right. >> you ever tip zero percent? >> no. i don't go if i can't tip. >> we have to go. got a couple of light showers, sprinkles, drizzle here and there. fog in spots still hanging tough. later today we'll be looking at more of this. light scattered showers throughout the area. might be more thunder. had some overnight. couple of showers in northeast washington now, pushing up north of mount airy and more towards manassas. possibility of seeing widespread showers and maybe thunder later today. between two systems. system off to the east and north, that was responsible for the rain we had yesterday, about .5-inch at reagan

national. plenty of clouds today and fog. a cold front to the west will get in here later tonight and tomorrow, and we'll see gradual improvement i think tomorrow afternoon and particularly the weekend. the sun will be back out, and highs in the upper 60s and low 70s. forecast gets better. hang in there for another day and a half here, as conditions later today won't be ideal. still a lot of clouds, and on the cool side. 64 at reagan national. haven't budged a lot in the last 24 hours. 66 annapolis. 59 winchester. if we get any sunshine at all, even a peek of sunshine, breaks in the clouds, we'll see highs near 70 today. if not, upper 60s for daytime highs. here's your futurecast. again, you can see the hit-and- miss shower activity, even later this afternoon, through the evening rush hour a couple of showers. showers widely scattered, you

get the idea not a beautiful thursday in the washington area. cloudy skies, drizzle, showers a possibility. 71 the daytime high. that's an optimistic high. still showers lingering around here later tonight, with cool temperatures, 50s north and west. 62 in town. maybe a little sun tomorrow. frontal system, the second front will get through here tomorrow, and temperatures will be in the 70s. maybe sun late in the day. saturday and sunday look beautiful. looks like fine for the football game sunday afternoon. tony, back to you. thank you, tucker. now we have a consumer alert for back berry users. some are experiencing a backup after a massive outage. research in motion says the problem has been fixed and its working to clear the backlog of data. european infrastructure failed earlier this week and the

outage hit european, latin american and africa before spreading to north america. evidence of how quickly a little smoke can turn into a life-threatening fire. this mattress was set on fire to show how dangerous smoking in bed can be. and they rigged a toaster next to a bag of chips and paper towels. the fire spread out of control in seconds. >> most of the people who die in fires in the united states, die in home fires. there's very, very simple things people can do to insure the safety of their families. the first thing i would advise is everybody should have operating smoke alarms in the home. >> 2400 people die every year in house fires. this is fire prevention week. october is national bullying prevention month and the sesame street gang is addressing the issue in a program airing monday. that program is called, the good bird's club, and will

feature big bird and elmo encouraging young people to be proud of who they are. joining us this morning are big bird, blue jay, a new character -- >> hi. >> hey. good morning to all of you. how are you? >> good morning, tony. hello, washington. >> hi there. we are so happy to have you on the show. doctor, thank you for joining us, too. big bird, blue jay, i'm going to get to you in just a moment. i want to talk to the doctor first. >> okay, tony. >> doctor, tell me a little bit about the special episodes that are coming up that are dealing with bullying. >> yes, this is national crisis we're dealing with, and sesame street has always been about laying the foundational skills, providing educational skills and also helping children deal with situations such as bullying, and it's an opportunity for us to model and identify what bullying is and give children the skills to actually know how to deal with it. it's important for them to go

to a trusted adult. >> i'm going to ask you about some of the those skills and objectives you hope to achieve in a moment. first, big bird, let me ask you, you know, life is good on sesame street, but have you encountered bullies? >> oh, yes, i was bullied. i wanted to join the club called the good birds club, but they wouldn't let me, because they said my beak was too long and i was too yellow. >> that was not nice. how did that make you feel? >> i felt very bad. i hated it. i just wanted to be part of the club, and i just wanted them to like me, but they didn't. >> doctor, let me turn to you. what are some of the techniques that you hope to teach and impart to those who will be watching? >> we want children to feel empowered, that if they are experiencing these bully

behaviors, which involves name calling and hitting and done in a repeated fashion, to go to an adult, because an adult needs to intervene often. for adults to know how to handle a situation like this. we're asking people to not only tune in and watch this episode on monday, but to also go to our web site, sesamestreet.org back slash bullying. there are wonderful videos and activities for parents to get more useful information and give these tools to their children so they can combat bullying. >> blue jay -- >> yes, sir. >> this club that big bird was trying to get in, are you in that club? >> well, i was, tony. i was there. i have to say i was there. >> he was. >> what was going on? >> well, the pigeon, he's like the leader of the club, and he was being kind of big bird, and i'm embarrassed to say i didn't know what to do, tony. >> you didn't know what to do? >> no, i kind of went along, because i was afraid i might

get bullied myself and i was a little scared. >> i don't blame him. >> it's a good thing you all are going to help all of us learn what to do and how to handle these types of situations. >> now i know, i know how to be a reporter and tell an adult. >> exactly. it's important for children to report the behaviors and that's different from tattling. it's when you're letting an adult know when someone is being hurt. tattling is trying to get someone hurt and get in trouble when they're not really being hurt. this is an important message for children and adults. >> it's an important show. will be on monday. i know you're doing other shows related to this as well, following monday. doctor, thank you for joining us. blue jay, great to meet you, and big bird, it is wonderful to talk to you, too. we love having you on. >> thank you, mr. tony. >> don't let anybody bully you or push you around. >> yeah. >> thank you. >> thanks, tony. >> bye,. >> bye. >> so sweet. >> sweet. >> i love sesame street. >> me, too. the holiday season is weeks away, and that means holiday

travel. >> believe it or not, it's already time to book that travel. so what can you expect price- wise when you book this year? we have details coming up after the break.       

if you're planning on a vacation for the holidays, you may be in for sticker shock. >> great. lauren demarco is here with what you need to know before booking. hi. >> unfortunately, airfares are trending a bit higher than usual, . tickets to hot weather destinations are over $600 now. that's higher than normal for this time of year. and it may keep some at home. resorts appear to be an exception to the higher fare trend. once they have a steady stream of customers year round and helps things out.

if you haven't booked already, fares tend to spike after columbus day. fares predicted this thanksgiving 15% higher than last year, and christmas trending higher as well. though there are destinations such as san juan, puerto rico where fares are less expensive than last year. so search the options. stars timing, better deals before and after thanksgiving and christmas. one site recommends leavinging this tuesday and returning sunday. that could save you cash, because most people prefer to leave on wednesday and return on saturday. lastly, another thing to consider is taking a cruise instead of flying. carnival and royal carribean both have cruises leaving from baltimore, so no need to fly. you'll pay in the $800 range for a seven-night cruise, and

it includes meals, entertainment and activities. alcoholic beverages, may need to look into that further. i figure instead of going and hanging out with family at their home, visiting your relatives, you could all leave and go on a cruise. >> that sounds good, actually. >> like the idea of cruises. to me, the airlines, they're getting unreasonable. if you can avoid flying, don't fly. >> are you going to boycott? >> if i can. >> let's boycott. let's cruise. >> that's how things get done. >> right. anyway. lauren, thank you. >> you're welcome. it's a gardening extravaganza this morning. >> holly has teamed up with our garden expert, derek thomas for amazing advice on getting your yard decorated for fall. it's not all about decorations, ladies. details are coming up next after the break. don't go away. it's 9:45.

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a florida man charged with hacking into christina aguilera, scarlett johansson's e-mails is out on bond. authorities say christopher cheney put revealing information, including nude photos on the internet. he was arrested after a year long investigation. officials say while this case is getting attention because of the celebrity victims, hacking can happen to anyone. >> mr. cheney set the victims' accounts to automatically forward all their e-mails to his own e-mail. using these messages, he stole not only private and personal photographs of the victims, he also took financial information, movie scripts, and conversations that the victims believed to be private. >> officials say cheney used

publicly available data to figure out passwords. use that for good, right? he's pretty smart. >> yeah, yeah. a lot of times these guys are smart, but use it for evil. if gardening is more your speed, so unevil, holly has you covered. >> she's at ed's plant world in brandywine, maryland, getting great fall gardening tips from our expert, derek thomas. good to see you. >> reporter: hi. could be evil. [ laughing ] >> reporter: no, no, no. you're right. we're having a nice serene time. we're talking all about fall decorating. derek is amazing, as always, he's telling us what we need to do. one of the things we need to do is take care of what we have. >> take care of your ever greens. this is a great time of year to take care of not only your ever greens but all your plants with

proper fertilization and nutrients to get ready for next year. people always talk about this with their evergreens this time of year. see the browning? >> reporter: yeah. >> don't be worried about that. that is a natural response in the fall. it's shedding. if the outer foilage is nice and healthy, you're good. >> reporter: don't worry about the inside? >> don't worry about that. >> reporter: it will just go away itself? >> it sheds down below. or if you want to make it look nicer, you can get it out of there. >> reporter: another reason why we love ever gallon greens. >> right. they are ever green and forgiving. some of the things i like to talk about, this is a wonderful plant, fertilizer they have here. it's a calcium. if you are experiencing browning that's not natural with your plants, or if they're

losing some of the green, great. it will neutralize that ph. you can use it on your lawn. >> reporter: we've had so much rain, is anyone dealing with browning? >> the thing about rain, a lot of the nutrients have leeched out of the soil. that's why something like this all organic plant-tone, it's balanced and water soluble. you want to put it down, because a lot of the nutrients have leeched out. blue hydrangeas, get this down now so it will be blue next year. now pruning. this is the part where we get dangerous. we want the topiaries to return

to a sphere like this. if you have a topiary that's been cleaned up and because of these rains we were just talking about, it's grown out, giving it a little bit of a cleanup this time of the year it will be great. what that will do is, it's going to create a tighter mass so if we get heavy snows and things like that, it won't break the plant open. >> reporter: i was going to say, are we doing anything for the health of the plant or just making it look better? >> it's going to look better, of course, because everybody loves a good haircut. >> reporter: we all look better with a good haircut. >> right. >> reporter: how do you know when you cut too much? when there's no green left? >> when you completely de green the plant, you've gone a little bit too far. you want to take a look at where -- this was done -- it's called a poodle. >> reporter: really?

>> yeah, absolutely. there are a bunch of spheres. you want to try to go back into where you see the tighter green. anything that was unruly what you want to be removing. >> reporter: if there's one thing you're going to do this fall before the weather turns really cold, what do you need to do? >> the biggest thing before the weather gets really cold is make sure that all the your plants have been properly fertilized, and that you've got a good healthy top dressing of a compost or mulch. >> reporter: i think it looks pretty good. did you miss a whisker here? myfoxdc.com, we have a link to thomas landscape and ed's plant world. this this week here, if you come out, kids with a parent or guardian or adult, and you say you love fox 5 and you love derek and holly and think we should have our own show --

>> they'll giver you a pumpkin. >> reporter: no, you'll get a free pumpkin. happy fall decorating. >> good stuff. thank you both. coming up, the answer to today's trivia question. speaking of questions, do you have a question you'd like answered? send it to me, myfoxdc.com, click on the morning tab to ask allison. we love the family issues, relationship issues, those are our favorite to answer. we do it on friday mornings here during the mighty 9:00 hour of fox 5 morning news. five minutes before 10:00. we'll be right back.     q mom makes a green bean crunchy. it's like totally crunch-erific! what they mean is, it's french's french fried onions in my green bean casserole. french's french fried onions. now in the french's stay-fresh can.

lysol no mess automatic toilet bowl cleaner cleans your toilet and freshens your bathroom with every flush. so it's always at its freshest. time to answer the trivia question. what color is the golden gate bridge? tucker? >> can i guess? >> yes. you know this area. come on, international orange. the color was originally used

as a sealant for the bridge. the color has been kept that way ever since. >> they're about to repaint the towers. >> they are? >> excited about that. >> very good. it's time to say good morning to our facebook fan of the day. wendy flemming. we love this photo. she says she has never noticed a fan of the day from culpepper, virginia and she wanted to be the first one. so wendy, you are. if you want to be tomorrow's fan of the day, find us on facebook, no space between fox and the number 5 and post a comment under wendy's photo. can we go to hd radar? developing to the south and west, manassas, a new thunderstorm building up. possibility we could see more thunderstorms later today, as well as drizzle and light showers. you can see the hit-and-miss activity at the moment. more of the same today, and things will improve for the